Pinkbike Poll: How Do You Survive the Off-Season?

Fall is always a bittersweet time of year. The brightly colored leaves, cooler temperatures, and the tacky but not yet muddy trails makes for prime riding conditions, but there's always the knowledge that it won't last for long. Like it or not, here in the Northern Hemisphere the days are getting shorter, the nights longer, and winter is on its way. For many riders, the onset of winter signals the end of mountain bike season, or at least a significant drop in the number of riding days per week. Warm clothes and lights can help extend the season, but venturing out into the pouring rain in near freezing temperatures and pitch black darkness takes a lot more motivation than those carefree summer rides. Plus, in many locations, snow will soon be piling up on the trails, forcing them into hibernation under a white blanket until they melt out next year.

Time to charge up those lights - night riding season is fast approaching.

Distractions are the key to off-season survival. Many of us get a little twitchy if we haven't ridden in a few days; the trick is to find something to take your mind off mountain biking until the longer days and nicer weather returns. Night riding, fat bikes, and trips to the desert are all ways to ease the symptoms, and to stay on the bike, but these are just temporary cures, and can't really match the feeling you get on a long summer day's ride.

The first snows are starting to fall in the high country, and it won't be too long until the knobby tires are swapped out for skis and snowboards.

So what is an addicted mountain biker to do to stay sane? Binge eating and drinking might be the initial response after Daylight Saving Time ends and effectively makes those after work rides impossible without lights, but that's probably not the healthiest solution. For those lucky enough to live near the mountains, snow sports are the answer, since skiing or snowboarding through untracked powder goes a long way towards easing the withdrawal symptoms, and in all reality it's better to mix things up, rather than single-mindedly spinning the cranks all year long. Even the top mountain bike athletes in the world take a break, adding in surf trips, dirt biking, rally car racing, or any number of alternative activities to give those tired muscles a break for a month or two. Taking a small step away from mountain biking makes it that much better when the sun decides to reappear.

Winter is just around the corner, but there's still time to sneak in those last few fall rides. Weigh in below on how you plan to spend your off-season.

Ha ha, true that - we rode up to the Village on our second day in Whistler and it was a ghost town, the guy scanning passes got up from his seat, looked at us a bit quizzical said 'HI' and we walked straight onto the chairlift, had a blast coming down completely hard pack, couldn't turn to mud in a million years of rain trails, rinse and repeat 4-5 times more before we saw another group of riders. We were starting to think some great world event was unfolding and everyone was huddled around the TV watching Aliens land and asking to be taken to our leaders - nope, seems it was raining.

Saying that, coming from Wales you do occasionally see riders getting all freaked out if they see a big burning disc in the sky - happens about every two years.

Off-season? No, I draw the line at hail and snow higher than the hubs.

Look at the bright side. GB is one of few places to visit where a potential tourist does not have to worry what's the weather's gonna be. So I did three weeks ago when coming to Wales, where as every time before travelling to Norway, Italy or Poland I am checking all possible future telling websites hoping for sun.

The gym is a good way to exercise I've heard but I can"t stand the monotonous clanging of weights. If you train outdoors in the winter hiking , skiing/boarding, and continue mountain biking thru all the storms you will come out next spring like a champ. Your bike will not melt in the snow so don't be afraid to go out riding in the middle of a blizzard. Icy wind blown conditions just mean its very technical and your tires won't sink as much. I never used studs ,spiked tires, or fat bikes and rode thru 3 months of straight blizzards and ice last year up north. It helps being familiar with winter conditions from a skiing background but I see alot of riders hang it up for the winter. Some of the best riding all year is in fresh powder and your bike can handle all of it.

I have no probs with hitting the "home gym" in my small apartment. I just have a really good training program that does not require too much equipment. I start in November/December and around May/June I feel like a demigod thanks to it. I tend to stop training around May and I watch my body steadily decompose after the summer. Around September October/Novemeber I feel like a deflated repeatedly reused condom, and i know that the best way to stop feeling like that is to hit the gym... kind of a good motivation circle

Ya I'll second PR as the spot to be in all seasons. There are some serious mountains out there, just alot of trail maintenance because everything grows fast as hell. Hard to even think about biking with those booties everywhere. Have to make a trip to Dorado again soon as possible. Surfing there is awesome as well, just watch out for the reef.

In W.A. it is the off season only if you can't bunny hop the snakes that come out in the summer. Night riding is key just stay away from wetlands cause of all the tiger snakes hunting frogs at night. I also agree with the next comment it is building time for next season.

here in indonesia we dont have winter, fall, summer, or spring. we only have wet season and dry season. on dry season we shred some dust, on wet season we shred some mud, and after all we drink some beer. so indonesian dont know off season meaning.

Cali is all smog in the south and wet cement snow up north besides that its great. There's no more good snow anywhere unless your willing to live in poobutt idaho or roadapple minnesota. The riders here that are affraid of winter riding are called hobbyists or bendehos. We roll 365, the colder the better. Less tourists pooping around the trails.

Celtic legend has it that in Scotland when the planets align just so, and the river's levels are right, the actual sky turns a different colour, one of azure and halcyon depth, and the rain ceases to fall, and the ground will dry and the trees and flowers bloom, the colours reflect and shine, and everything is brighter and warmer. This happens every few thousand years, I have yet to witness this miracle

Inquiring minds want to know so here's a complete breakdown of my riding schedule per week and by month dating back to 1980 bc (before computers). I personally ride 4-6 days a week all year. When the trails are full up on snow I get the fever and ride 5-6 days a week. Summer when its 110 degrees I go out early a.m. if I can breathe in the ozone toxic alert conditions. Find it easier to breathe in 5 degrees than 95+. The spots are varied by which style of riding I looking to get into. Street spots are by the thousands, dirt jumps by the hundreds, a.m. trails by the millions and DH(lift served) is whenever I can drive 3-6 hours btw april to november. Dec-march is when the raw enduro riding starts and I see less to no riders out, the best.

No Bigbossman, I asked a question with no hidden intentions and no greater case behind it. it is you who always behave like you are looking for a fight, your reaction was adequate to a question as if I asked you how often do you wank, to create a phsycholigical profile of yours. Tjet for instance is able to deliver a simple non emotional answer. And a tip fir the future: do not use word wanker or any other insult before you are sure that it has at least a slight capacity to insult the adressed person. If you must know I do masturbate just like vast majority of men. If you want I can provide you with studies proving that. Just chill out, go to Plattekill or something. Take a quick wank - it will cheer you up

@Bigbossman and anyone concerned: I might be all sort of things but I dare to say that I am usualy the last one to go into interpersonal stuff. I STRONGLY encourage you and anyone else to write PM to a moderator to block my account whenever you feel I am going too far and you just can't bare reading what I write which in fact nobody forces you to read. However your frequent engagement in those often pathetic interpersonal girls slaps turns every comment thread you are present in into a cesspit. I think this is a very bad way to deal with comments you don't want to see because in most cases it creates an opposite reaction according to the "don't feed the troll" 9th law of thermodynamics. I like being here writing and discussing stuff, it entertains me, subject is irrelevant as long as it somehow relates to bikes. Even being dissed is sometimes fun. But people like you bring absolutely nothing, you can't even insult someone in a skillful manner, to make it entertaining for other readers.

Now calling people wankers... please... the only people that can get insulted with that are men with complex related being masculine. Like owners of BMWs, SUVs, hobby hunters, football fanatics. You should know by now. You have to agree with me here, a man accusing other man of masturbation is really on top of the list of most often said hypocrisies. Just behind: Americans condemning someone of possessing weapons of mass destruction, using IPhone to share "help raped women in Kongo". Please, just step up your game, or don't write anything. At least use PM system to express your interpersonal concerns.

Maybe less masterbating and more riding would end your queenlike dramatic tendencies. I mean my broad whines less than you. Please contribute more insight for Dr. Phil to analize or maybe Maury in your case.

I don't get why some people complain about the winter and snow. Snow is so fun. I love MTB much more than any winter sport, but every year when winter is coming I'm waiting it to take out my snowboard and ride. Just like every year I'm waiting for the weather to get warm enough to take out my bike again. This is priceless life cycle. I've always been sorry for the guys that don't have snowy winters or sunny hot (but not too hot) summers. So when the snow falls, enjoy it. Don't complain. Just grab your snowboard, your skis or whatever you got and go ride. And not to mention that it can be fun to ride your bike in the snow too. At least sometimes.

Well there is usually about a week where we get a freakish amount of rain and it's a little to sloppy, but that just means it's time to go build new trails (wet dirt in socal packs the best). well at least where I'm at that's usually the way it goes.

Heck yea, Tucson here: ride at the top of the mountain in summer, bottom in winter. That said, it's hard to do other things like climbing, because there's no off season for one sport so you can do another.

On the French Riviera, summer is too hot for enduro riding. Only downhill in the mountain is possible. So the rest of the year, it's enduro riding, especially in the winter. No breaks for us down here.

I'm a little suprised they didn't give fat bikes as an off season option? Yes they did mention ride year around, but fat biking is like a new sport in a sense, I live in Michigan where I can now hit a fat race almost every weekend from January till mid march. Pretty cool in my opinion!

Off season is just training for the next season, luckily I do live in an area in aus that doesn't get snow so even though it gets cold (or what a life long aussie feels is cold haha) we can still ride year round.

Bastards! Who wuda thought that the penal colony would have turned out so awesome. Here I am stuck in the "New world". Oh well at least we have the shore, whistler, fraser vally, sechelt and canadian beer!

For me it's the other way around. MTBing is a total blast but it's something I started in my teens so I could fill up the time during the off-ski season (Don't get fooled by the flag next to my name I'm not from the UK...) Off-season for me means ski season is ON and that's what I look forward to... First GS race of the year in Solden this weekend will give me a little taster of what's to come and I just can't wait to hit the snowy slopes...

Riding in the UK is like riding in the off season all year round, only slightly warmer in the summer! Being over 40 and having ridden offroad since the late 80's I got sick of getting covered in mud for 9 months of the year. With that in mind my brother and I invented the Mudhugger, a rear fender that attaches to the seatstays letting you use a dropper post and get off the back of the bike on the steeper stuff. No more muddy arse for us. We've been selling them on our website since September and the feedback so far is very positive. We've sold most in the UK but have sold some to Europe, Canada, US, Scandinavia and Russia.

Massachusetts is the worst during the off season.... closest "real" skiing is over a 90 minute drive and everywhere is always a mob-scene on the weekends anyway so it isn't even worth it... this winter I will be working out more often, cross country skiing (i am surrounded by fantastic XC ski terrain (massive extremely flat conservation lands across from my house), snow shoeing, honing my bike mechanic skills, and trying not to off myself due to lack of biking....

Oregon. We ride year round and the rain isn't anything we can't deal with. I think riding in all conditions improves your riding actually. Sure, we replace bearings and seals a bit more often but at least we are riding all year.

live in greece is almost always summer !sometime is really hard to understant in which season you are except june to september that is burning hot!!!!! after i have spent sometime around in europe i can say easily we have good conditions for downhill and enduro mtb all around the year but not that kind of manbuild trails

To bad that in Poland we've got one, real indoor skatepark that is opened for everyone except..MTBs. The funniest thing is that (according to local authorities) "mountainbikes are too dangerous to ride there". Mentality of SOME Polish BMX riders (especially around 16 y.o.) is also strange to me..instead of riding together and unfiy in joint case, they make boundaries... I hope that it will change in the future.

I enjoy biking and skiing equally, so when it snows here in Scotland I'm happy. I can ride my bike for 99% of the year and love the other 4 days when skiing conditions are perfect. A wee ski holiday to the Alps never hurts either. Yet to take my bike to continental Europe but it's on the ol' bucket list

Off season os when I am sleeping or at work.
The rest is game on.
Too dark at night now for 6 months without lights.... lights and build something new ready to test a section at the weekend, and have ready for 6 months time or ride.
Then plan the week in the south of Spain once or twice in the winter.... it is way hotter than our summer down there and cheap to get there.

I bike right up until the snow flies, then it's usually a mix of snowshoeing and snowboarding. Best part of snowshoeing is I go out onto our bike trails, and after a bit of snowshoe traffic you get a nice hard packed path along your trail. That's when I break out the bike again and go out for some great winter XC riding. Just keep a good mix of packing the trails down with my showshoes and biking them when the conditions are right, and you can enjoy some biking in the "off season". I would love to have a fat bike for winter, but it's not in the cards just yet. I don't even use studded tires, just lower air pressure!

Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee! When one is cold and snowy in the "off season", I just head to another. Usually Florida is my place to ride and really the best time of year for riding here is the winter when bugs aren't trying to carry me away!

Living in Ireland where pretty much all year is rain same for the UK and im new to MTB I ride as often as I can an then on the days I aint working or riding I head out into the forests in my 4x4 for some off Driving , or do some hiking or hit the gym still ride as often as I can though :-)

i actually do more in the off season.. most of the time you can still ride parts of the shore, especially when it's not wet. plus i ski, snowboard, and build. nice to change things up for a few months anyways.

I remember riding in Heidelberg Germany one day that it was so cold we burned a pair of spare socks to get some feeling in our feet. I tend to just go on shorter rides nowadays...Getting too old for freezing rides.

I am going to be using some Hutchinson Prototypes, that are now the DZO's. Yes they are heavy, but do they work? I used them fro the first time today and they are rubbing my chainstay a little, odd for a burly bike like my Brodie, and I had 2.4" tires with no issues, but they didn't have knobs like this! Nothing a little shave won't fix though!

I use my bike as my primary transport, so when it gets cold, it just means more layers under my Gore-Tex! The worst thing about winter riding is the insane drivers that I am forced to share the roads with... here people drive by braille!

Yeah, because it's impossible to love more than one sport, right bigwheels29er? Biking is awesome as f***, but shredding deep pow? Damn.Also, in case you didn't notice, this is a 26-27.5 inch wheel website for the most part, so this might be the wrong website for you.